Environment
The environment is one of many areas where America and Iran have found common ground. The US-Iran Project has facilitated a number of exchanges among scholars and environmentalists between both countries. These exchanges have not only contributed to the improvement of relations, but have also increased knowledge for both sides on their respective environmental issues - which are fundamentally global issues.
Read about the impact of our environmental initiatives in this article.
Environment and Dialogue Among Civilizations Conference, May 2005
Janet Larsen, an environmentalist with Earth Policy Institute (EPI) and colleague of Lester Brown, traveled to Iran with the support of SFCG to participate in an international environmental conference in Tehran. The conference, organized jointly by Iran and the United Nations Environment Programme, addressed "Environment, Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures". The recommendations and conclusions from the conference will be submitted to the United Nations Secretary General at the 60th session of the UN General Assembly that begins in September 2005. Click below to read Janet's full trip report and to view photos. Additional information at www.earth-policy.org
Please click here to read Janet Larsen's report [pdf].
Click here to view photos related to this exchange between the two countries.
Environmental Exchange to Iran, April 2002
Leading American/world-famous environmentalist Lester Brown of Earth Policy Institute (EPI) traveled to Iran under Search auspices during the last week of April for a conference on Population, Nutrition, and Environmental Sustainability in Tehran. The US-Iran Project jointly organized this event with our Iranian environmental partners loosely banded under the umbrella of the Network of Iranian NGOs. Population expert Nazy Roudi from Population Action International also attended the conference with our support.
Report from Lester Brown
My trip to Iran went very well. I could not have been more warmly received. The Sunday morning, April 28, session with the Iranian NGOs working on the Caspian Sea was of particular interest because it gave me some insight into the evolution of environmental NGOs in Iran. That there are so many NGOs working on environmental issues is an encouraging civil society development. I also noted with interest how many women were involved in these groups.
The sessions on Monday, April 29, with the three talks I gave, along with the responding panels, provided an opportunity for me to gain some insight into the issues as they are seen from an Iranian vantage point.
On Tuesday, we took a field trip into the mountains north of Tehran to look at the two water reservoirs that provide much of the water for the city. This also meant that I had a chance to see one of the world's more spectacular mountain ranges up close.
On Wednesday, we did a session at the University of Tehran, including a number of key faculty in a seminar sort of arrangement. One of the things we discussed was the proposal for an annual state-of-the-environment report for Iran. I was rather taken with this and, in response to their request, indicated I would be happy to serve as an advisor as this project unfolds.
There is no question but the country is becoming a fertile field for environmental ideas and initiatives.
Thanks so much to you and your colleagues at Search for Common Ground for helping to make this possible.
Sincerely,
Lester R. Brown
President
Environmental Law Exchange Trip to the U.S., September 2001
Four Iranian environmentalists traveled to the U.S. September 7-15 to take the next steps in U.S.-Iranian collaboration on environmental law, proceeding from the May environmental law workshop in Tehran in which the concept and practice of environmental law was presented to a diverse group of environmentalists, academics, students, activists, and government officials. The Iranian environmentalists came to learn more about U.S. environmental law, consider ways in which an Iranian version could be implemented in Iran, and to collaborate with their American counterparts in building an environmental law graduate program at the University of Tehran.
During their week's visit to the Washington area, the Iranian environmentalists had many opportunities to meet and network with their American environmental counterparts as well as visiting the law schools of the University of Maryland and Georgetown University, a number of NGOs, and an environmental law firm.
The major accomplishments of the trip were solid support from Georgetown University and the University of Maryland for collaboration on building the graduate environmental law faculty at the University of Tehran; agreement from the environmental law firm of Beveridge & Diamond to cooperate with the Iranian delegation, such as by offering to host Iranian graduate students as interns; and the commitment on the part of all the NGOs we met to keep in contact with the Iranian environmental delegation to continue to network, share ideas and informational resources, and to consider other areas for collaboration. In addition, we are working on convening a conference on Population, Environment, and Nutrition in Tehran next year and pursuing cooperation on eco-tourism.
Environmental Law Workshop May, 2001
Environmental law trainers Prof. Richard Lazarus (Georgetown Law School), Prof. Bob Percival (University of Maryland Law School), and Bern Johnson (Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide) traveled to Tehran to conduct a comprehensive 3-day workshop, which included:
History of U.S. environmental law
Regulatory approaches in the U.S.
Pollution and natural resources law
Citizen/governmental enforcement of environmental law
Interactive group exercises addressing local environmental issues such as Tehran and Caspian Sea pollution
Future collaborative efforts will include:
Developing law-based approaches to dealing with specific Iranian environmental problems
Building a graduate environmental law program at the University of Tehran, in collaboration with the University of Maryland (UMD) and Georgetown University
Academic exchanges between American and Iranian universities involving professors and graduate students, and internships with ENGOs
An exchange of environmental law "best practices"
An upcoming visit of Iranian environmentalists to the U.S. for meetings with American environmental law schools and U.S. ENGOs, as well as visits to environmental technology centers and other areas of environmental interest in the northeastern U.S.
* For ELAW Executive Director Bern Johnson' s excellent report on the emerging environmental movement in Iran, please visit www.elaw.org *
Urban Management, Population, Environment Conference, February, 2001
The U.S.-Iran project brought four American environmentalists to Tehran to participate in an international conference on urban environmental issues. Participants identified areas for future collaboration, including academic exchanges, "best practices" sharing, and training Iranians in NGO lobbying and advocacy, public-education campaigns, and grant-writing and fundraising.
The delegation also met with several environmental NGOs (ENGOs) in Tehran and Esfahan to discuss possible collaboration on such issues as water capture and re-use, general urban development issues, and pollution and its effects on environmental health. In Esfahan, the discussions focused on the Zayanderoot River upon which the city is built. There is concern about the detriments of industrial pollution and unstable development in the river, and local ENGOs are mobilizing to address this issue.
Environmental Visit, 1999
Search for Common Ground with Iran brought a delegation of nine Iranian environmentalists to the United States from October 25 to November 5, 1999, with the goal of facilitating connections and cooperative activities between the environmental movements in the two countries. Iranian participants included key leaders of Iran's growing environmental non-governmental organizations.
The visit began in Washington with a one-day environmental conference. The conference was designed to enable the Iranians to make contact and exchange views with their counterparts from the American environmental movement. Iranian and American participants gave short papers on the following topics:
The Role of Iranian NGOs in Protecting the Environment
Urban Air Quality in Iran
Water and Wastewater Management in Iran
Natural Resources in Isfahan Province
The Greening of America and the Graying of United States Environmental Law: Reflections on Environmental Law's First Three Decades in the United States.
The Iranian environmentalists visited American national parks and wilderness areas in the West. They learned about three different models for national parks multi-use, wilderness, and heavy-use, respectively. Iranian participants were inspired by what they saw in the US parks to develop numerous ideas about how to strengthen Iranian parks and preserves.
In the days after the conference, the Iranian delegation visited the offices of ten environmental groups and held substantive meetings with them. These meetings resulted in a great amount of exchanged information and invitations to take part in joint activities and to visit the other country.
Publication
Our publication Persian Lion, Caspian Tiger: The Role of Iranian Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations in Environmental Protection in Iran is now on sale.
This seminal compendium of papers delivered at the first U.S.-Iran environmenal NGO conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center on October 25, 1999 contains essays from some of Iran's finest academics and environmentalists. Essay topics range from wildlife to urban air pollution and from biodiversity to biohazards among others. We have a finite number of copies on offer for a limited time.
The publication is free. However, shipping charges do apply.
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